Developer: Unbound Creations
Publisher: Unbound Creations
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Switch 2
Cleaning Up! – Review
Both cozy games and cleaning games have been quite popular for a while, and some even try to combine the genres, creating something zen-like in the process. We remember cleaning up our island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons was extremely satisfying, as it meant we could start decorating it afterwards. Another fun example is Powerwash Simulator, which made us clean both realistic and silly environments, almost like a digital coloring book. Cleaning Up!, the subject of today’s review, combines the cutesy visuals of a cozy game with the cleaning aspects of certain simulators. The result is a fun, cute title, albeit short and somewhat rough around the edges.
Story
After installing the Clyner cleaning app, it seems you are the newest cleaner for the city of Wales. You get your onboarding from the AI-powered Spongy, who teaches you the ropes. After this basic explanation, you’ll find yourself going from one location to the next, restoring different structures to their original state by cleaning them. You’ll quickly notice that you’re not just helping the people, but the buildings and locations themselves also seem to be sentient. The story itself isn’t that deep or engaging, but it’s nice to actually have an original narrative, which, in the end, also throws a few surprising twists and turns your way.
Graphics
Graphically, Cleaning Up! might not be the best-looking cozy game out there, but it still has very cute visuals. Your character can dress up in several different outfits while cleaning in a variety of environments. The game has a few different themes, such as a haunted mansion and library, a streamer’s apartment, a secret research facility, a camping ground, and several more. The backdrops have fun details, and there’s something really satisfying about sucking up all the grime and garbage with your powerful vacuum cleaner.
Sound
While the sound design of Cleaning Up! isn’t necessarily bad, it did not blow us away. The game does have a few catchy tunes, but they loop so incredibly quickly that they eventually started to annoy us heavily, forcing us to turn down the volume. For a cozy game, the music sometimes even felt a bit eerie, which didn’t necessarily suit the atmosphere. The SFX are decent, albeit a bit basic.
Gameplay
Cleaning Up! is a cozy cleaning game in which you’ll clean up different locations with your trusty cleaning tools. The game throws you in different themed levels, ranging from someone’s messy apartment and the city’s streets to the moon’s surface and a haunted cemetery. The offset is really simple, as you just need to complete the prerequisite cleaning goals to bring home the bacon and mind possible level-specific conditions to avoid penalties. The game progresses at a steady pace, unlocking new cleaning tools as you progress. You’ll probably have seen everything the game has to offer, including maxing out your star rank for every level, in about four hours.
In the game, you’ll have five tools at your disposal, which you’ll unlock gradually. At first, you’ll have to make do with your trusty broom and vacuum cleaner, to eventually unlock a power washer, a mop, and a spray can of air freshener. You’ll often have to use all of these items in the different levels. You’ll have to use the broom to get rid of sticky gunk, the vacuum cleaner for all the loose garbage, the mop to clean the floors and other surfaces, the power washer to clean furniture, and the spray can to just give it that finishing touch. Every time you unlock a new tool, the older levels will have new stuff to clean to incorporate the new tools. Sadly, even with that added replay value, the game still remains very short. We would have loved to have a few more stages, as most of them can be cleared in a matter of minutes. You can, of course, grind a bit longer to purchase all the available outfits, but this was hardly an incentive to keep playing.
Conclusion
Cleaning Up! was a fun cleaning game with a few silly twists, but we found it way too short and perhaps a bit too basic at times. Don’t get us wrong, we really enjoyed playing through everything the game had to offer, but it was a shame we did so in the course of a single evening. If you’re looking for a bite-sized cozy cleaning game, then you can’t really go wrong with this one, if your expectations aren’t too high. Even so, Cleaning Up! is entertaining and cute.
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